When Hell Begins
by Stefani140
Summary: Post-Lucifer Rising. Lucifer is unleashed, the Archangels are after Cas...what do the Winchesters do now? This is my theory on season 5.
1. Prologue

Prologue

"The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook." Psalms 77:18

The blinding white light shook the windowpanes as if attempting to break right through. Though there was nothing solid there to create such a trembling it was still there. Instead of showing any fear or attempting to flee, Castiel stands tall next to the prophet Chuck. He was expecting the higher-ups to send an Archangel after him for his insubordination but he didn't expect it so fast. He had to give Dean a head start he simply had to.

One other thing he knew, he had to get back to Dean as soon as possible. He couldn't afford to be dragged back upstairs for another spanking right now. Dean didn't know the most important part of all. Castiel didn't have time to tell him and now he could only hope that Dean stopped Sam from killing Lilith. If he didn't, well Castiel didn't want to think about that.

A ringing started up in Castiel's ears, a ringing so fierce that he was forced to sink to his knees. He needed a plan, yet he was entirely unable to think. Thinking was what he needed. That damn Zachariah had really messed things up now. Just as Castiel closed his eyes to shut out the pain, it suddenly stopped. The ringing disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. He opened his eyes slowly and found the Archangel had gone completely. Confused, he stood and turned questioningly to Chuck. Had Chuck prophesied something while he'd been incapacitated?

Chuck looked just as confused as his angel companion and rushed to his computer. He tapped at the keys for a few moments before looking at Castiel with a million questions in his eyes. "What happened?"

Solemn as ever, Castiel provided the only response he had. "I was hoping you would know that."

"So, this wasn't you?" Castiel shook his head and let Chuck continue, "Well I didn't do anything. You know I can't rewrite this stuff anyway. There's just nothing there, no ideas no visions, nothing."

Castiel furrowed his brow. That wasn't good. "Someone must have decided to block your ability to see what happened."

"Who could do that?" Frantic now, Chuck was furiously searching his manuscript, looking for any changes or alterations.

"Someone a lot more powerful than I." Castiel walked to the window and stared out of it for a moment. Finally, he spoke again, "You see nothing of the Winchesters?"

Chuck shook his head, looked up to find Castiel facing away from him and answered verbally. "I see nothing of anything. I can't even tell you what's going on with my cat. "

"Hmmmm." In his usual tightlipped manner, he didn't elaborate. "What's the last thing you did see?"

"I saw Sam, killing Lilith."

Alarmed, Castiel answered a bit more abruptly than usual. "Was Dean there?"

"I didn't see him. The last I have of him was leaving here."

"I have to find him." Without another word, he vanished.

Chuck scoffed and spoke to the open air, "Great, I'll just sit here and be useless then!"

"And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison," Revelations 20:7

A great plume of black smoke poured through the crack in the concrete. Dean watched in horror for only a moment before turning to flee. He looked over his shoulder after a few steps and noticed Sam was not behind him. He turned back and pulled at his brother's arm, Sam stood there horrified and not moving.

Through the ever-thickening darkness Dean shouted, "Sam! It's time to go!"

Seemingly having no effect, Sam merely shrugged his brother off and backed up a few steps. Not knowing quite what to do, Dean instinctively reached for his shotgun. It took him a few moments to realize that he had nothing to shoot at. Instead he moved to Sam's side again and tried reasoning with him. He came this far to get his little brother and he wasn't leaving him here with Lucifer now.

"Sam, listen to me, this isn't helping anything. There's nothing you can do here. We need to find Cas; he will know what to do. Let's go, now!"

Sam looked his brother in the eye, pain filling his gaze. He shifted his gaze to Lilith's lifeless body every few seconds while answering. "Its my fault. I am the monster they thought I was. I did it, I ended the world. You're better off without me."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Don't you dare do this to me now. That demon slut lied to you, plain and simple. She's dead; we'll fix the rest. I am walking to that door, when I get it open I will expect to see you behind you. I will drag you out if I have to."

He walked toward the door, throwing a glance behind him halfway there. Sam was still leaning against the wall and looking miserable. This was the last thing he needed. First he gets kidnapped by the lunatic fringe of Angels R Us, then he escapes the idiots and nearly gets flattened by an Archangel, he was not letting Sam get all moody and irrational too. He pulled at the door, expecting to find it blocked he pulled a little harder than necessary. When it swung open easily, he was knocked off balance for a brief second.

Before he turned, he made one final declaration to his brother. "I mean it Sam, you better be there. It's time to leave."

He finished his turn and was surprised to find the black smoke had disappeared. Alarmed, he reached for his shotgun again, just in case. Sam was facing the window. Dean nearly fell on his backside when Sam turned. His eyes had changed to reflect the deepest black that Dean had ever seen. He spoke in a rough, harsh voice that was not his own. "Yes Dean Winchester, it is time to go."

With a slight nod of Sam's head, Dean was thrown the several hundred feet to the end of the hall. The doors slammed shut at almost the same instant his head cracked against the solid rock wall.


	2. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Thank you all so much for the reviews and favorited story! I really wasn't expecting such a great response; I hope the story will live up to your expectations. Reviews are always appreciated, it let's me know how I'm doing.

Chapter One

"And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness." Isaiah 29:18

Dean slammed into the stone with such force that he literally saw stars for a few moments. He barely heard the sound of the doors slamming before he noticed an alarming blackness starting to cloud his vision. With a strong curse he shook his head. While that cleared the oncoming unconsciousness it made him dizzy. Deciding it was better to take a few moments to catch his breath, he tried to assess the damage.

His ribs hurt a bit, and his head was pounding. But really what else could he expect, he'd been thrown 100 feet into solid rock. It didn't appear anything was broken so he gingerly got to his feet to test things out. Another wave of dizziness sent him spinning and he had to brace himself against the rock. When he felt steady again, he made his way down the hall shouting for his brother. The doors seemed to be blocked, but shouting seemed to be doing nothing so it was time for more drastic action.

Dean rammed his shoulder into the ancient wooden door and caught his breath from the shock of pain that rippled through his chest. Speaking to himself, he muttered, "Alright, bad plan." Two solid good kicks at the door that nearly threw him off balance again finally cracked the wood enough for the door to be opened.

He stepped through, not sure what he was expecting to see, with his gun raised and a wary eye. "Sam!" The further Dean's eyes traveled around the room, the more apparent it became that Sam was not there. This didn't stop him from hollering his brother's name for a few more minutes, but the only thing there was a very dead Lilith.

Muttering to himself again, he tried to work out a strategy. "Where did you go Sammy? And what do I do now?" Almost in answer to his own question, he began shouting for Castiel instead. If anyone could help him now it was an angel right? And since Dean had angel speed dial, it was worth a shot.

What seemed like hours later, Dean still shouted for his missing angel, his voice going slightly hoarse. Becoming angry, he'd taken to pacing. He had no idea what else to do. Giving up he shouted at the empty sky, "I don't know where you are, but you better get your sorry ass down here!" Receiving no response, he sighed and headed for the front door, he needed a better plan.

Somewhere between unlocking and opening the door of his precious Impala, a voice sounded behind Dean. "Well, at least one of you is still alive."

Wheeling, Dean instinctively threw a punch and for the second time in twelve hours it connected with the concrete face of his favorite angel. Wincing and shaking his hand to ease the pain, he got angry again, "Where the hell were you? I've been calling for hours!"

Cas maintained as stoic a presence as ever and merely shrugged. "Well I had no ability to summon you either. It appears our connection has been cut."

"By who?"

"Dean, surely you noticed that the power structure up there isn't what it should be."

Completely lost, Dean pondered for a minute and tried to find an answer that wouldn't make him look stupid. Failing, he shook his head, "What?"

Rolling his eyes, Castiel answered. "Dean, do you really think that God would encourage the rising of Lucifer?" Receiving no answer, he sighed. "He who refuses to see will remain blind forever. God is the one who imprisoned Lucifer in the first place. Something bad is going on up there, the wrong people are giving the orders." Pausing a moment, he continued, "Did Lucifer rise?"

Nodding and immediately changing the subject, Dean responded. "What about Sam? Where did he take Sam?"

"The thing you need to understand Dean is that Lucifer is an angel. A fallen angel yes, but still an angel. I'm sure you remember what I told you about angels."

Suddenly comprehending, Dean sunk back and leaned against his car. "All angels need a human vessel. But Lucifer isn't supposed to be so…normal."

Smiling a little and appearing to nearly laugh, Castiel rubbed his eyes. "Do you really think that the depictions of Lucifer as a red giant with horns and a tail are accurate?" Dean raised his eyebrows, but didn't disagree. "I'm sure you remember in Genesis when Lucifer appeared to Eve as a snake. That was an allegory, designed to mean that Lucifer inhabits a form that will be most appealing to his prey. In this case, that's your brother."

This was disturbing. Not only was Dean no longer looking for the giant guy with horns and a tail, the devil found his brother a pleasing form. That was just wrong. Finally, after much consideration, he found a flaw in the angel's seemingly flawless theory. "But what does that have to do with me? The other angel said that only I could stop Lucifer."

Sighing again, Castiel responded with his normal tone that seemed to indicate that his response was the most obvious thing in the world. "He's your brother and you're a powerful hunter."

Dean suspected that wasn't the entire story, and Cas was known for keeping secrets from him. He needed to figure out a plan, one that would keep the angel around so that he could find out what was really going on. And they needed Bobby. After a brief conversation, Castiel finally agreed that Bobby was the best tracker around and his help would be valuable.

Bobby opened his door to find Dean and an angel standing there. Without Sam. He immediately demanded an explanation and wanted to know what happened. They obliged and Bobby's jaw slowly dropped, "You mean, Sam is Lucifer's bitch?"

Dean nodded and demanded to know why Bobby was at home when the end of the world was going on outside. Instead of answering Bobby beckoned them to the dining room. A large map was laid out on the table with a series of red X's on it. Puzzled, Dean wrinkled his brow and shrugged, clearly prompting him to tell them what it was.

This time Bobby obliged. "I quickly figured out as soon as you went missing that the demons weren't doing what they normally do. There was literally no activity. Except right here." He indicated a spot on the map.

Recognizing it, Dean answered the unasked question. "That's the cathedral where Lucifer rose."

"Makes sense. I was on my way there when another hunter friend of mine called and said the activity had stopped. He didn't know why. It was a waste of time to go there, so I came home to follow any other activity." He indicated the other spots on the map. "Those have shown up in the last hour or so, you'll notice they…."

Castiel interrupted, "They form a distinct line from east to west across the country." Bobby looked slightly disgruntled at the interruption, but Cas continued before he could say anything. "Is that the only demon activity?"

Bobby nodded and it was Dean's turn to interrupt before he could continue. "So, it's a pretty safe assumption that's Sam?"

Bobby finally cleared his throat and cut the both of them off. " I think so. What I don't understand is why the other demons are so silent. This should be their playtime."

Dean paced the room for a few moments and moved to the window behind the other two, thinking. "I think the only way we'll find that out is finding Sam. And that map should let us predict where he'll…."

Dean abruptly stopped speaking mid-sentence. Castiel and Bobby turned around and gasped in shock when he found that he was gone. Bobby rushed to the other room, calling for him. Cas stood silently and stoically as ever. Finally, Bobby returned looking frantic and still without Dean. He got right in the angel's face, "What's happened to him now?! He always seems to get in trouble around you!"

Castiel merely looked him in the eye calmly, "It appears now our first task is finding Dean. Without him, finding Lucifer is useless."


End file.
